Windows 95 introduced the My Documents folder as a place where user files would be stored by default. The main issue with this is that the folder is located on the C: drive, along with Windows operating system files and installed program files. This makes backing up harder and becomes problematic when needing to reinstall Windows, as formatting the drive will remove all data. Not ideal.

With successive Windows versions, My Documents has had different names and locations..

Version

Shortcut name

Actual folder location (path)

9x/ME

My Documents

C:\My Documents

NT

Don't ask..

Actually NT had no default documents folder

2k/XP/03

My Documents

C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents

Vista

Documents

C:\Users\username\Documents

7

My Documents

C:\Users\username\Documents

* The above assumes Windows is installed on the C: drive. The username folder represents the user's logon name.

Making the move

The My Documents folder will be moved to the D: drive (partition) on the hard disk, which was created for storing data.

Firstly open Windows Explorer and create a new documents folder, such as D:\Docs (screenshot)

Still in Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\users and then to your home folder (based on your login username). Right-click on the My Documents folder inside and select Properties (screenshot)

In the My Documents Properties dialogue box, click on the Location tab at the top of then and click on the Move button (screenshot). In the Select a destination box point to the location of the new documents folder

With the path to the new documents folder showing (in this case D:\Docs), confirm move with a Yes (screenshot)